The other day I saw an animal that had obviously been hit by a car. Some kind person (probably its owner) was trying to get the animal in their car. The animal kept shying away from the person. It was scared. It was hurt. So, it didn’t want to be hurt more. It was wounded, and it favored the wound. In my pastorate I have noticed that most of us are wounded in some way. We shy away from others and protect our wounded places. We tend to run or attack where we are hurt.

Is this why we fight so much about what we believe? When we talk about our convictions and doctrines we must acknowledge that we tend to think of these things as battlegrounds. We have taken what we believe and made it another place to express our woundedness. We fight over that which should unify us. We judge others about things that would help us understand each other. We seek to make others into our own image instead of walking together to seek God’s image.

What would it be like if we saw our beliefs as part of the journey and differences of opinion places to learn more about one another? What if our differences were places that we could share our love instead of another wound? I think that is what God has in mind. God wants us to care about each other. He wants us to be seekers of the truth. He wants us to seek to heal each other’s wounds. Let’s do it together.